SunPower has announced that Morgan Stanley has agreed to own and finance solar electric power systems totaling more than four megawatts that SunPower will deploy on seven Wal-Mart facilities in California. The financing agreement was secured under the SunPower Access program, which allows SunPower customers to purchase solar-generated electricity from a SunPower financing partner as an alternative to outright purchase of the solar power systems themselves.
SunPower arranges the solar power system's financing and sells the system to the SunPower financing partner, in addition to designing, deploying and maintaining the system to the customer's requirements. The customer pays the financing partner for the solar electricity generated over a long-term power purchase agreement.
At the end of the term specified under the agreement, the customer typically has the option to renew the agreement, transfer the equipment to a new site, or purchase the system outright from the financing partner. SunPower solar systems have a projected life of more than 25 years, depending on site location and other variables.
The SunPower solar systems are part of Wal-Mart's broader initiative to reduce the company's environmental footprint, and are expected to provide an average of 25 percent of Wal-Mart's energy usage at each of the seven facilities. SunPower announced its SunPower Access agreement with Wal-Mart in May 2007.
Morgan Stanley's broad energy portfolio increasingly includes alternative and renewable energy financing, such as with SunPower, to encourage energy efficient technologies.
